My 2013 Birding Year in Review (With My Top Ten Birding Moments!)

In 2013 I birded in two countries, submitted eBird checklists for seven U.S. states and thirty-seven counties, and added a whopping ninety-two species to my life list. At the beginning of the year I said the following about my goals for the year’s birding:

I only got my Queens Life List up to 302, which means I fell one short of that goal.

I managed to get my ABA Life List up to exactly 512, which means I did actually manage to meet that goal, but barely.

My World Life List ended the year at 1,188, which means that I smashed through that goal with relative ease. (Though I have been badly lazy and still haven’t updated my list on the blog.)

But what were my top ten birding moments of 2013? I didn’t travel much this year, with a June family trip to California and Nevada and a four-day trip in July to Trinidad and Tobago being my only opportunities to get birds not in the northeastern United States. Despite that, I managed to see 511 species in 2013, which is not half-bad. Hopefully I will see at least that many species in 2014! Anyway, on to my top ten birding moments of 2013…

I had a great half-day out with Jeff in Staten Island enjoying one of the coolest natural phenomena that the New York City region has to offer. The Mississippi Kite certainly didn’t hurt either but it couldn’t top the awesomeness that is more insects than you can count all making eerie noises. (It’s worth the click-through just to listen to the audio on the videos in the post.)

Sure, this wasn’t a “birding moment” in the strictest sense but it is related to birding and it is one of my top accomplishments for the year. We birders must push back against the uninformed, ignorant, hordes who seek to put their obsession with a non-native predator over that of native species.

Corey is a New Yorker who lived most of his life in upstate New York but has lived in Queens since 2008. He's only been birding since 2005 but has garnered a respectable life list by birding whenever he wasn't working as a union representative or spending time with his family. He lives in Forest Hills with Daisy, their son, Desmond Shearwater, and their indoor cat, B.B. His bird photographs have appeared on the Today Show, in Birding, Living Bird Magazine, Bird Watcher's Digest, and many other fine publications. He is also the author of the American Birding Association Field Guide to the Birds of New York.